African countries can reform the ICC from the inside out: ISS
The most effective way to resolve Africa’s concerns with the International Criminal Court (ICC) is not by withdrawing from the court‚ but by using the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) and the Rome Statute. This is the view of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS)‚ which is attending the 15th session of the ASP in the Hague. The ICC has been in the news recently over its rocky relationship with Africa. SA‚ the Gambia and Burundi recently submitted notices to withdraw from the ICC. Other African countries have indicated similar intentions. The ISS said African states’ concerns with the ICC were well publicised, but often badly understood and all too easily brushed aside. "To ignore Africa’s concerns with the ICC is to risk undermining the future of the international criminal justice project as a whole‚" ISS senior researcher Allan Ngari said. The most notorious among these concerns — and often the elephant in the courtroom — was the matter of immunity for sitting heads of state. Th...
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